Saturday, November 6, 2010

Understanding The Different Parts Of A Compound Microscope

By Greg Pierce

The microscope is an amazing tool in the world. They let people see things that are so small to the naked eye. However, a lot of people are taking for granted the things make a compound microscope work properly. Here are the parts of a compound microscope that lets you see small things clearly.





Eyepiece - This is the part of the microscope where you will look through. This part of the microscope contains a lens that has a magnification power of about ten times (10x). The eyepiece is probably the most famous and recognizable part of a compound microscope.





Tube - This is the part of the microscope that supports the eyepiece and objectives. The tube is a very important part of a compound microscope because it supports the different parts of a microscope.





Objective Lenses - This is located near the bottom end of the tube. An average compound microscope usually has 4 objective lenses, each with different magnifying power. They usually have the magnifying power of 4x, 10x, 40x, and 100x. When these lenses are used along with the eyepiece they produce a total of 4x = 40x, 10x = 100x, 40x = 400x, and 100x = 1000x magnifying power.





Revolving Nosepiece or Turret - This is the part where the objective lenses are attached. This can be rotated by the user to adjust the power of magnification they want.





Arm - This supports and connects the tube to the base. This is the curve metal that you see in a compound microscope.





Base - It is the part of a compound which makes it stand and be stable. It serves as the microscopes feet. The base is a "U" shaped metal or much similar to a horseshoe. The base is of a compound microscope is usually made from metal.





Condenser Lens - The lens is a very important part of a compound microscope. Condenser lenses help you see a specimen at a high zoom level. With this, one can focus the light toward your specimen so that you can see them clearly especially if you are viewing them from 400x and above magnifying power.





There are still many microscopes that use condenser lenses even though modern compound microscopes do not have condenser lenses anymore.





You see, there are several parts of a single compound microscope that works together to perform one single task, to magnify things.





Stage - This is where you put your specimen for you to view them under your compound microscope.

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